


sweet tea

by solaris (rumpledvelvet)



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-05 04:15:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10297277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rumpledvelvet/pseuds/solaris
Summary: meliorn hated coffee, but his local coffee shop was the perfect place to read and the eyecandy was more than decent, so he took a breath, ordered some tea, and dealt.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dejties (dumbmichael)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dumbmichael/gifts).



> for shadowhuntersaumondays' first prompt: coffee shop aus! which is easily one of my favorite sort of aus. this is for my loving girlfriend, luna, who isn't on ao3 and [mari,](gaysimon.tumblr.com), for being the fucking best to ever exist. 
> 
> prompt is from [here!](http://origami-teacup.tumblr.com/post/145246967054/one-cannot-have-enough-of-cute-and-random-aus-so)

meliorn _hated_ coffee, but his local coffee shop was the perfect place to read and the eyecandy was more than decent, so he took a breath, ordered some tea, and dealt. he set himself up in a table by the window for maximum sunlight and the best line of sight to watch the baristas work over the tops of his books. all of them were very nice to look at – from beautiful isabelle with her curves and red lipstick with whom he’d had a short and passionate affair and her brother with whom he’d _considered_ having a brief tryst with ( but was unfortunately very much spoken for ) to raphael santiago, who happened to be the moodiest eye candy in the establishment – and equally talented, but there was one barista that meliorn liked to look at most of all.

jace herondale was a vision amongst men and his foam art was some of the best that new york city had to offer. he _also_ had the cutest service dog, angel, that meliorn had ever seen and often split his time between admiring the man and petting the dog whenever he rested his head in his lap as meliorn read. sometimes, if he was feeling more flirtatious, he would lean against the bar and admire jace’s foam art ( read: jace ) up close.

until one day during his mostly silent observations when jace spoke up. 

“you know, you’re in here almost everyday and i’ve _yet_ to do some foam art for you, especially since you seem to admire it so much.” he lifted his mis-matching eyes to catch meliorn’s gaze, a teasing smirk curling the side of his mouth. it wasn’t a bait that meliorn would usually bite, but it would be the first time that he’d actually held a conversation with jace that was something other than art technique so he sidled closer to the bar and lifted his shoulders in a shrug.

“i’m actually not that big of a coffee fan. tea is my thing.” he watched jace finish up a cat before handing it to a server, tapping his fingers idly on the spotless surface beneath them.

the statement confused jace, if the wrinkle between his brows was anything to go by, but he didn’t let it stop him. “why on earth do you come to a coffee shop everyday then?”

“the aesthetic and the eyecandy.” with that, meliorn turned on his heel to go back to his table with angel in his wake. he lifted his book up to go back reading, lifting his eyes to catch jace watching him with his head tilted in a way that was very similar to how angel did when meliorn did something to confuse him.

meliorn wondered, absently, who had started the cycle.

–

“have any of you seen jace’s recent search history, because it’s the _best_ thing i’ve seen all week.” the click of her sky high heels announced her arrival before her voice did and maia made a mad dive for where jace’s phone laid prone on the nearby table while he worked out at the bar. she’d bullied him into adding her fingerprint a few months ago and took the opportunity to go to safari and tap his history before clearing her throat to read it out to the assembled crowd.

“wow, he’s been busy, okay. ‘how to brew tea’, ‘how to _perfectly_ brew tea’, ‘what is blooming tea’, ‘can tea burn’.. there’s a few more that follow the same pattern that i really don’t need to read. someone stop this boy, he’s gone off the deep end.” maia locked the phone and dropped it in mock disgust, shaking her head in displeasure. there was a question lingering at the very tip of her tongue, but she didn’t want to ask and seem like she was too involved in jace’s life. 

alec, thankfully, had none of the same concerns and facilitated maia’s nosiness by asking the question at the forefront of her mind. “why the hell does jace want to learn about tea? last i heard him talk about it he lovingly referred to it as “nasty leaf water” and said anyone who willingly drank it was a pretentious fuck and he wanted nothing to do with them.” 

izzy tilted her head in agreement, folding her legs underneath herself as she sat beside maia and contented herself with playing with her girlfriend’s curls. “well, he’s clearly changed his tune. the _real_ question is _why_?” 

this left the room in a contemplative silence before raphael tossed down a ten dollar bill on the table. “ten on it’s because he wants to look cultured.” there was another beat of silence before everyone was reaching for their wallets to throw their own bets in. maia made the general bet on jace liking someone, alec bet on him liking a man, izzy on a girl, and the rest of their coworkers who weren’t on break filled in their bets accordingly.

–

by the end of that week jace had, to his knowledge, mastered what pretentious fucks called the art of tea making and wanted to try his hands on impressing meliorn with his new found knowledge. he’d heard meliorn complaining to one of his friends about how the tea was usually burned before it met his hands and had learned the optimum brewing time for some every type of tea that google told him existed and was _ready_ for when meliorn came into the shop and ordered his usual mug of tea.

“mel ordered the apple jasmine tea, with honey. izzy can do it, if your recent studies haven't actually made you a master tea maker.” maia folded the order sheet into a paper airplane and launched it at jace’s head before turning back to their order line.

“i got it, maia.” their particular apple jasmine tea was white, and incredibly easy to burn, so jace made room for izzy and alec to work beside him and got to work on steeping and sweetening meliorn’s tea to perfection. two minutes later the sweet perfume wafted up to his nose and he carried the mug over to his usual table where angel was soaking up the avid reader’s love and attention. “your tea.”

meliorn raise a brow at jace, his hands stopping in their steady scratching of angel’s soft fur as he focused on the steaming mug in his hands. “the expert foam artist can make tea?”

“i might have..picked it up after several hours of youtube tutorials and talking to some of the people who work at the teavana down the street. let me know if it's burned or anything.”

he raised the mug to his lips, blowing on it to cool it slightly before taking a cautious sip. “it's actually perfect. i didn't know coffee addicted knew that tea could burn.”

“i’m not the average coffee addict. and, while i'm here and you're showering my dog with love and affection, would you mind coming on a date with me?" 

izzy grabbed maia’s arm, jerking her attention from the customers and garnering the rest of the staff’s attention. “look! he just asked meliorn out!” 

“do you hear that? that's the _sweet_ sound of me and alec winning a bet against raphael.” she high fived alec under the counter, and kissed izzy on the cheek when she pouted. “i’ll buy you dinner.”

they shushed themselves as meliorn set his mug down and lifted his head slightly to look jace in the eye. “i wouldn't mind going on a date with you, so long as it's anywhere _but_ a coffee shop.”

“i can certainly do that.” he leaned down and took meliorn’s pen, scribbling his number atop the blank page in his notebook. “call me, and we can figure it out.”

meliorn smiled slightly, pulling the journal closer to himself to inspect the number. "gladly."

**Author's Note:**

> send me prompts on [tumblr](softmeliorns.tumblr.com)!


End file.
